"Few things leave a deeper mark on a reader than the first book that finds a way into his heart."
The Shadow of the Wind,
by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Saturday, August 9, 2008

Mudbound, by Hillary Jordan

Mudbound by Hillary Jordan a Bellwether Prize winner for fiction is a disturbing novel of racial hatred and historical importance. This award is given to a novel that addresses social justice and after reading her book, it is obvious why she deserves this prestigious prize.

Henry McAllan moves his wife and children to Mississippi, where he has bought a cotton farm on the fertile Delta to fulfill a lifelong dream. The time is late 1940s and the rules of white and black society are clearly delineated. Everyone knows their social places and gender roles, segregation is assumed and seemingly second nature as blacks and whites coexist in the community as long as the unwritten law is followed. This is the southern lifestyle as it was during the Jim Crow pre-civil rights south. Segregation is as mudbound as the land itself. It is deeply rooted in the culture of anyone born into the southern landscape. Laura follows her husband to Mississippi from the civilized world she is accustomed with no questions asked. Florence and Hap accept the sub human treatment given them as a natural part of life.

Jordan’s craft is to tell the story from the point of view of the characters. In this way you become intimate with the souls of each family member, knowing how they think and feel. The McAllans, Henry, Laura and Jamie and the Jacksons, Hap, Florence and Ronsel.

We cringe when we hear the language used by Pappy, Henry’s father the vile hateful white supremacist bigot. We wiggle uncomfortably when the man, Ronsel Jackson is called boy or Florence is called a nigger or any other racially derogatory moniker. It is hard to understand the thinking behind Laura’s hesitation of allowing Florence to nurse her very sick children because of her color.

Mudbound is the story of Jamie and Ronsel, both soldiers who are back from WWII. For the time being they are helping out on their family’s farms. Ronsel served in an all black unit in Germany and while there has a relationship with a white woman. This is considered taboo in his native Mississippi, but in Europe, he feels like a man, not a black man, color is not noticed. When he returns home, he is treated as a boy again, because in the white world he is not a man, he is a black boy again.

Jamie and Ronsel become friends, but must face the racist rules society imposes on them. Ronsel can’t ride in the cab of Jamie’s pickup truck because of the color of his skin. One day while driving together they are spotted by Pappy who is wrought with disgust and disbelief. Jamie and Ronsel are warned to stop riding together and threatened with consequences by Pappy and Henry. When they continue to break the racial rules the penalties are unrelenting, horrifically unfathomable and life threatening.

Before Civil Rights Laws, this is how life was. As difficult and hard as it is to face our past, it is disturbing and offensive to read now. This book captivated my attention from the very beginning and the momentum never stopped. Jordan has captured the spirit of the time and brings you there. You feel the precarious tolerance of life that existed between whites and blacks, always leery of the next incident. Mudbound had me on the edge and will be etched in my memory for sometime, perhaps forever.Hillary Jordan's Website____________________________________________________________________________________Mule Contest: The mule is mentioned on page 130 when Henry tells Hap to have one of his boys come fetch it.

Congrats on finishing the Southern Reading Challenge with a bang. Before you take the book back to the library please enter the State of the Mule contest! I hope you had fun with the challenge and stay tuned for more autographed southern book giveaways!

I'm not certain I could read this. The anger it would engender in me would be so intense that I would be forced to put it down. I know you can't walk away from facts, but there are some places I just can't go.

This book is disturbing yet I have truly read worse. When you read the non-fiction accounts of the KKK, this is closer to fact than fiction. Just as Germans read about the atrocities inflicted by the Nazi's in WWII, so too Americans, whether they like it or not must face the horrors of their past. This does not mean a justification, but a realization that racial hatred can, did and still does exist in this country. Ann, I know reading this book brought out the hot tempered anger in me for sure. It makes me want to scream, and I lived an interracial married life for 18 years. I know the deal. It is amazing to me how differently people of color are treated in Europe as opposed to the US. Why is that? Lets get beyond our color issues America.Thanks for your comment Ann, once again you got me going. :-)

I have really wanted to read this book since it appeared as an ER selection. It sounds hard to read, but you're right in that these are the things we must face, as they still exist today. I think I'm going to actively seek this book out now - thanks for the review!